The cSNP scanning and expression analysis of the duck FTH1 gene

Ferritin, heavy polypeptide 1 (FTH1) is a kind of ferritin complex that catalyzes the conversion of Fe(II) into Fe(III) to protect the cell from oxidative damage. Recent research has shown that FTH1 is also associated with several disease-related processes, such as inflammation and tumor progression and so on. In this study, the coding sequence (CDS) of FTH1 in Jinding ducks was cloned. The CDS sequence revealed an open reading frame of 546 nucleotides encoding a protein with 181 amino acids. Based on this sequence, the duck FTH1 protein is predicted to have conserved domains typical of eukaryotic ferritin. Only one synonymous mutation (c.447T > C) of the coding sequence of the duck FTH1 gene was identified in ducks. Quantitative RT-PCR results revealed that FTH1 expression in the liver and spleen was significantly downregulated after duck hepatitis virus 1 infection. Meanwhile, in DF-1 cells transfected with an FTH1 plasmid, expression of the antiviral marker gene Mx1 was significantly upregulated. These results suggest that the coding sequence of the duck FTH1 gene was highly conserved and FTH1 plays an important role in antivirus activity.